Best way to create a bootable flash drive, please

unforeseen

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BrianPamondesk

What an interesting thread this is and so cool that a lot of you have given your time to provide in dept answers here. 

If you guys don’t mind I’d like to ‘partially’ dissect the thread here and ask questions about some of your answers because a friend of mine down the pub actually asked me last week if I could help acceding his laptop because he’d forgotten his login password. At the time I was a bit tipsy and sort of shrugged it off because I didn’t have the answer there and then. Only now (I’ve not had a drink today) have I remembered this. 

Q1. So, am I correct in saying here that the OP has lost his windows login and he wants to get back into windows. All he needs to do is burn an iso image of hirens onto a usb drive. Set his bios to boot from usb and then boot to this USB drive. If this is correct (up to now) I then assume there is some kind of utility to run from the stick that will allow him to reset the admin password? 

Q2. If my Q1 is correct is it then correct for me to assume that he can also reset other user account passwords on said machine (or just admin)?

Great thread and thanks all. 

ih8stress

GunJack said:

If all she's done is forget her password, use Hiren's BootCD and use the NTPassword Editor on it to just remove the windows password. It looks a bit scary as it's all DOS-based text, but it's effective. 

I had to wield my Hiren's for the first time in ages to do just this for someone a couple of weeks ago

Thanks @GunJack.  It will be a while before I see her but I want to be prepared before then.

So, I switch on the pc, press F12 (or whatever it shows) to change Boot options to start-up from the flash drive.

Insert the flash-drive (or do I do this before switching on?).

So, what do I do then to do, or get to, the NT Password Manager bit, please?

After that, do I then just remove the password completely or do I put in (re-set) a new one for future use?  And with reference to the post from obsidian fox, if it is the latter, am I able to do this without enabling the admin account?

Sorry for all the inane questions, I am trying to cover every angle as until I go ahead I don't know what I am supposed to be looking for!

Oh, and after it has hopefully worked, I will need to go back into Boot options and revert it to start-up from the c drive or whatever, I am guessing.

callum5

ih8stress said:

Hi

As title suggests I am going to create a bootable flash drive as my niece has forgotten her pc log-in password and that seems to be the method to use.

Seen a few (old) threads that mention Linux, ubuntu and others.  Just wondering what the best one is these days and also where to (safely) get it from?  I understand that I will need to 'burn' the iso image using imgburn or Rufus (again, best place to get these from).

Thanks

If you are looking to use Linux I would recommend BalenaEtcher

balena.io/etcher

GunJack

ih8stress said:

GunJack said:

If all she's done is forget her password, use Hiren's BootCD and use the NTPassword Editor on it to just remove the windows password. It looks a bit scary as it's all DOS-based text, but it's effective. 

I had to wield my Hiren's for the first time in ages to do just this for someone a couple of weeks ago

Thanks @GunJack.  It will be a while before I see her but I want to be prepared before then.

So, I switch on the pc, press F12 (or whatever it shows) to change Boot options to start-up from the flash drive.

Insert the flash-drive (or do I do this before switching on?).

So, what do I do then to do, or get to, the NT Password Manager bit, please?

After that, do I then just remove the password completely or do I put in (re-set) a new one for future use?  And with reference to the post from obsidian fox, if it is the latter, am I able to do this without enabling the admin account?

Sorry for all the inane questions, I am trying to cover every angle as until I go ahead I don't know what I am supposed to be looking for!

Oh, and after it has hopefully worked, I will need to go back into Boot options and revert it to start-up from the c drive or whatever, I am guessing.

insert the flash drive (or CD/DVD) BEFORE powering on the machine, then yes on power-up change the boot order. When Hiren's starts up, you'll have a text-based menu, NT Password Remover is listed. Start it, and follow the instructions it gives you.. just remove the password, and encourage her not to put another one on it unless she writes it somewhere safe - idea, why not get her to txt it to you so it's easily retrieveable if required? NT looks a bit daunting as it's a pretty big wall of text, but follow the instructions and it's a doddle

a

BrianPamondesk said:

Q1. So, am I correct in saying here that the OP has lost his windows login and he wants to get back into windows. All he needs to do is burn an iso image of hirens onto a usb drive. Set his bios to boot from usb and then boot to this USB drive. If this is correct (up to now) I then assume there is some kind of utility to run from the stick that will allow him to reset the admin password?  

Yes and no. Yes, this is all you need to do for a local account. No, for a single sign-on microsoft account, which you can to go to any web browser, https://account.live.com/ResetPassword.aspx and enter either your email, phone, or skype name.

For local accounts, there also are other ways to get in, but not as quick and more complex. As mentioned either way a linux boot disk will bypass all the security, unless encryption is used. Then there are bios and disk passwords which could really confuse things and mess situations up, but they are fortunately rarely used.

TheRightOne

I don't understand the advice to download Hiren's when all that is needed is a single utility.

https:// pogostick.net/~pnh/ntpasswd/

It's a download of 18 MB, not 1292.04 MB.

What are you thinking?

ih8stress

Well, I seem to be making a right pigs ear of this @debitcardmayhem .  Have downloaded Hirens and Rufus as planned using your links. 

I could not see a download button on the Hirens download page, unless it was the 'Filename' bit at the very bottom?

So I went to the 'usb booting' section.  There was a download button for 'Hiren's BootCD PE - ISO2USB v 1.0 (x86).  So I downloaded this.

Underneath it said 'Download ISO2USB.exe to your computer.  I downloaded this link too.  Was that correct?

My downloads show as a Disk Image File for the first and an Application for the second.

I then downloaded Rufus okay, showing as an Application.

I have inserted the flash drive and formatted it.

When opening Rufus I am getting abit stuck on the Drive Properties as the options are slightly different than given in the Rufus example, which shows the Partition Scheme as MBR/ Target System as Bios/Uefi/ File System as FAT32.

The only options I get are:

Partition Scheme as GPT/ Target System as Uefi (non CSM)/ File System as FAT32

OR

Partition Scheme as MBR/ Target System as Bios (or Uefi CSM)/ File System as NTFS

Sorry for the long post (as usual).  Hope you are well

TheRightOne

ih8stress said:

Well, I seem to be making a right pigs ear of this @debitcardmayhem .  Have downloaded Hirens and Rufus as planned using your links. 

I could not see a download button on the Hirens download page, unless it was the 'Filename' bit at the very bottom?

So I went to the 'usb booting' section.  There was a download button for 'Hiren's BootCD PE - ISO2USB v 1.0 (x86).  So I downloaded this.

Underneath it said 'Download ISO2USB.exe to your computer.  I downloaded this link too.  Was that correct?

My downloads show as a Disk Image File for the first and an Application for the second.

I then downloaded Rufus okay, showing as an Application.

I have inserted the flash drive and formatted it.

When opening Rufus I am getting abit stuck on the Drive Properties as the options are slightly different than given in the Rufus example, which shows the Partition Scheme as MBR/ Target System as Bios/Uefi/ File System as FAT32.

The only options I get are:

Partition Scheme as GPT/ Target System as Uefi (non CSM)/ File System as FAT32

OR

Partition Scheme as MBR/ Target System as Bios (or Uefi CSM)/ File System as NTFS

Sorry for the long post (as usual).  Hope you are well

You should try reading all of the posts in your thread before proceeding. Otherwise you are simply going on a wild goose chase. I have already informed you as to what is needed.

ih8stress

@TheRightOne, I did read all the posts and had already opted for the Hirens/Rufus options before your input, as they had been mentioned a few times.  With respect, a few people have suggested different options - all of which have been gratefully taken on board and acknowledged.

As @debitcardmayhem has helped me numerous times in the past and supplied the links I was reaching out to him with this current query - not intending to offend anyone in the process